Tip of the Month (December 2002)

Using Pocket PC Hardware Buttons

Pocket PCs have hardware buttons that you can use to launch your most commonly used applications. By default, these buttons launch your Calendar, Contacts, and Inbox. You might want to change these buttons to launch some other application, such as a Visual CE form or Report CE® report.

To make a button launch a specific application, just do the following:

1. Put the application on the START menu. When you download a Visual CE application or a Report CE report, it automatically goes onto the START menu. You can make other third party applications appear on the START menu by using ActiveSync to put a shortcut to the application in the \Windows\Start Menu folder.
   
   
2. Select START | SETTINGS | BUTTONS.
   
   
3. Under "Button", click on the button you want to change ("Button 1", "Button 2", etc.).
   
   
4. Under "Button assignment", choose the application you want the button to launch.

That's it! You're done.

Note: Starting in Visual CE 10.0, these hardware buttons can alternatively be used to trigger a macro in your form.